The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) – Joe Abercrombie
Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian – leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.
Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.
Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.
Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he’s about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult.
Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.
My Review of The Blade Itself
Ohhh I think I have found a new addiction!!!
This is the first Abercrombie book I have read and I am SO HAPPY to have a whole bunch more to read after this! This book was an absolute DELIGHT! SO MUCH FUN!
So I didn’t even really know what “grimdark” was when I first started reading this, and I still don’t quite understand it – Violent, dark worlds where people are lucky to live till their 30th birthday, and characters you often love suddenly getting beheaded seems to be the definition in the google searches. Worlds that you would NOT like to live in! Like Game of Thrones. And I certainly would prefer our crazy world to that of the First Law series, that’s for sure!
Although it is MUCH darker, I see resemblances to The Lord of the Rings in this tale. I guess it’s like a much more modern version of the Fellowship of the Ring… Characters coming together towards an ultimate quest. But that’s probably where the similarities end. It is much more violent and bloody, but has less monsters and no trolls.. As yet… And it is WAYYYY easier to read and didn’t put me to sleep once! Abercrombie seems to rely on character development rather than meticulous detail about the world, and my gosh! It works!
The world that Abercrombie has made is well explained, but it is also left a little to the readers imagination. And I LOVED that!
I didn’t appreciate that there was no map. I love a map in high fantasy – just so I can wrap my head around where people are from and where they are going. However, just doing a google search this minute I discovered there are a TON of fan-maps. Perhaps I could have looked at one of them! 🧐
I don’t want to go too much into the characters and plot because half the fun is finding out about everything yourself. But the story is told through the eyes of 6 characters in all, but mainly Logan, Jezel and my personal favourite character, fencing star-turned-crippled-inquisitor, Glokta. They each have their own personal stuff going on and each individual journey ultimately brings them together in the city of Adua.
The characters! My gosh! These are some AMAZING, diverse, FANTASTIC characters! I wouldn’t want to meet any of them in a dark ally, but wow they are SO MUCH FUN to read about!
Well this year has got off to a FANTASTIC start! I absolutely LOVED this book and cant wait to delve into the next one!
(5 / 5)
I purchased The Blade Itself at my own expense.
Also featured in my December Book Haul:
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